Outsourcing has become a popular means of hiring people for a certain project or aspect of the business which is normally taken care of in-house. Outsourcing is a viable alternative to hiring your own workers since you only pay for the results yet do not have to worry about (nor spend money on) how such results are achieved.
Nonetheless, while it is true that outsourcing has its advantages, there are a few horror stories related to outsourcing that could make you think twice about doing it yourself. Here is the good, the bad and the horrible side to outsourcing.
The Good
1. Lesser cost – The biggest benefit that you can realise out of outsourcing is the savings. Getting freelancers or an independent provider/supplier for your projects whether long-term or short-term is cheaper by far than hiring newbies to take care of business or hiring more staff.
2. Time-effective – It will also free up a considerable amount of time for you since someone else will be taking care of what you would normally include in your agenda on a regular basis. While you still need to confer with your outsourced service provider, you can do so at your convenience.
3. Less pressure – You will also be under less stress and pressure if you hire freelancers or independent service providers/suppliers because they will do the worrying for you and troubleshoot as necessary.
5. Shared responsibility – Outsourcing will give your outsourced provider the shared responsibility of making the team work excellently to satisfy your customers. It’s your job to choose the best providers and it’s their job to prove to you that they are indeed the best.
The Bad
1. Less control – Outsourcing means you don’t control the process, only the outcome of the projects that you have commissioned to your independent contractor. You don’t have much say on how your contractors will accomplish their work – only that they do so. Thus, if you are a perpetual worrier who needs to be continually apprised of progress, you’ll have a hard time dealing with freelancers who report in only once the job is finished.
2. No loyalty – Freelancers get as many clients as possible without considering whether they are competitors or not; hence, their loyalty towards your brand or company could be divided.
The Horrible
1. Poor service quality – Unfortunately, some companies jump in the outsourcing bandwagon without really considering all possibilities hence, they get the most horrible type of freelancers around and the most unsatisfactory output. Bear in mind that your work ethics/attitude are different from others’ so your call for excellence may not be met with the same outstanding results.
2. You don’t get what you paid for – This is not similar to poor service quality, this is more of getting what you never talked about. While people may promise you the moon to sign you up as a client, sometimes they will not deliver what has been agreed upon and instead do something else that could ruin your operations and reputation.
3. Security Risk – Since you have not much control over the process of “production” whether of goods or services, there are security issues that you have to deal with. For instance, if you are outsourcing transcription work, there’s a risk that confidential or sensitive information can fall at the wrong hands.